Hamako the blue kappa wound her way up the trail to the shrine, leaves from the previous fall crunching underfoot despite the warm spring day. The stone path beneath her feet was lumpy, twisted and cracked from years of abandonment and previous winters’ ice. She picked her way carefully to the top of the trail and steadied herself. “This is the last one.”
She was on a mission to check on the spirits in the area. She’d visited three shrines the day prior, and one more this morning. Her feet ached from the winding path they’d taken her along. She dropped her backpack and supplies on the ground.
In what was almost a void, a drifting world of spacelike nothing, energy stirred against a kitsune’s cheek like a breath of wind. The white foxling stirred from a long dream that felt as if something were wrong, but she couldn’t quite place what had happened. She focused her attention on the shrine, and an image of Hamako appeared.
“It’s so far gone, though…I wonder if anyone’s here.” Hamako began to tidy the shrine, sweeping away leaves with the small broom she’d brought, placing broken roof tiles to one side, and evening the path at the top of the hill where she could.
The kitsune looks on excitedly, still weak but feeling energy course through her as the shrine is brought back to life.
Unable to do much more, Hamako took a bundle of rice from her pack and bowed before the shrine, feeling her head water slosh against the protective cover she’d tied in place under her chin that morning. “I do not know which deity this shrine belongs to, but please, accept my offering.”
It was enough energy to break the kitsune from her rest. In a flash of green fire, she appeared in kemonomimi form. With dirty blonde hair, clad in a starry kimono, she landed before Hamako, blue sparks coursing over her body briefly before resting. Her two black-tipped tails twitched. “Hello! Do you need Inari’s help with something?”
Hamako blinked and stared at the sudden appearance of the woman. “You’re a kitsune, aren’t you?”
“I’m certainly not trying to hide it, kappa. Do you need something?” The kitsune stared at the stranger’s clothing. It didn’t look a thing like she remembered. How long had she been at rest?
“I’m on a quest to restore shrines in this area and bring balance to the spirits. But you’re not exactly a spirit…”
She was looking about at the forest. Much was different than she remembered. “No, but I am the watcher of this shrine, and have been sleeping until reverence stirred it again.”
“I see. No one lives around here anymore. Are you tied to this shrine? Do you need me to set you free?”
“I’m not connected to the shrine, no. I came here as a helper, and must have slept for what has been a long time, until I could be of service again. If this shrine’s days are over, we should place a seal upon it, or,” she hesitated with a grimace, “destroy it. I’ll find somewhere to go.”
“Destruction may be best. If you go down the trail a ways, you’ll come to a much larger path. Wait for me there.”
The kitsune woman bowed before the shrine. “We will reconnect elsewhere, Lord. Let this place rest now.” She began walking down the uneven path. Some trees she expected were the grown versions of saplings planted along the trail decades prior. Their children grew below them. There were no more houses along the path, only small breaks in the overgrown foliage beneath the trees where the walls had been, not even a sign of the dirt paths that led to their doors once up on a time. She paced at the foot of the trail for some time.
Eventually smoke rose from the top of the hill, and Hamako soon arrived beside her. “I had to make sure nothing would catch alight. It is done. Where will you go?”
“I do not know.”
“Come with me, then. My work in this valley is done.”
“What is your name?”
“Hamako. And yours?”
“Sera.”
After a long walk, they arrived at a small through-town, nothing more than a few buildings around a train stop. The train frightened Sera at first, but Hamako cajoled her to a seat. They boarded the first train for Gambino Island.
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Reverie in Progress
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